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THE USE OF ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN TEACHING 
AGRICULTURE IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 



DICK J. CROSBY, 

Of the Office of Experiment Stations. 



[Reprint from Yearbook of Department of Agriculture for 1905.] 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Agriculture in rural schools 257 

Agriculture as taught in some public schools 258 

A consolidated school 258 

A village high school 262 

A county high school 264 

Laboratory exercises 267 

Materials needed 267 

Physical characteristics of soils 267 

Relation of soils to plants 269 

Studies of milk 271 

Agriculture an aid to other school work 272 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PLATES. 



Page. 



Plate XIV. Fig. 1. — Plant-life class at the Waterford, Pa., high school. Pig. 
2: — Class in live stock judging cows at the Waterford, Pa., high 

school 264 

X V. Fig. 1. — Class in live stock studying sheep on a farm near Water- 
ford, Pa. Fig. 2. — Waterford high school class in live stock 

examining a Hambletonian mare - 264 

XVI. Fig. 1. — The last sod schoolhouse in Norton County, Kans. Fig. 

2. — County high school buildings, Norton, Kans 264 

TEXT FIGURES. 

Fsg. 70. A frame of homemade manila charts used at the Farragut School, Con- 
cord, Tenn 259 

71 . A homemade farm-level 261 

72. A farm-level made with tripod and carpenter's level 261 

73. Seed-testing device - 266 

74. Another seed-testing device 266 

75. Apparatus to test the capacity of soils to take in rainfall 268 

76. Apparatus to test the power of soils to take up moisture from below. 269 

77. Device to show that plants absorb moisture from the soil 270 

78. Device to show that plants give off a part of the moisture absorbed 

from the soil 270 

79. Device to show the best depth at which to plant corn '-'71 



SEP 28 1907 

U. 01- l) t 



^ 



THE USE OF ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN TEACHING 
AGRICULTURE IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 



<3 



By Dick J. Crosby, 

Of the Office of Experiment Stations. 

AGRICULTURE IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 

The value of agriculture as a subject of study in the rural schools 
will be determined largely by the attitude of teachers toward it. In 
the high school and the consolidated rural school employing three or 
more teachers, the problem of teaching agriculture successfully is not 
a difficult one, for in such schools the facilities for illustrating the work 
are better than in the smaller schools, and there, too, a teacher having 
training in agriculture can be employed to teach agriculture and the 
other sciences. Even in the one-room rural school the difficulties, 
while the} 7 are more numerous, are far from being insurmountable. 
In such schools, it is true, teachers with a college education or with 
special training in agriculture are seldom found, and teachers having 
sufficient originality and energy to free themselves from a condition of 
absolute dependence upon the text-book soon command good salaries 
in other positions or take up some independent occupation. And yet 
these same rural schools, with their scanty equipment and poorly paid, 
poorly trained teachers, go on year after year turning out strong- 
young men who, in spite of inefficient schooling, have acquired an 
education which enables them to forge to the front in the business 
or professional world, or to rise to high places in the councils of the 
Nation. Training for efficiency seems to be acquired in some way 
through mere contact with the environment of the rural school, or 
more likely through participation in the varied business operations 
and work of country life. How better to utilize these undefined and 
almost intangible educational forces is the question which prominent 
educators are now trying to solve by introducing nature study and 
elementary agriculture into the rural schools. The great danger is 
that agriculture, when it is introduced into these schools, will be 
treated merely as an additional burden" to the teacher, as a text- 
book subject pure and simple; that the teacher will fail to see and 
appreciate the great wealth of illustrative material tying all around, 
which, if properly employed, would make the study of agriculture one 
of the most valuable subjects in the country school curriculum. The 
point of view for the teacher is quite clearly indicated in a recent 

257 



I 



258 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

lecture by L. H. Bailey on "The School of the Future,"" in which he 
says: 

In an agricultural community, for example, all the farms of the neighborhood will 
afford training in the elements of failure and success. There is no reason why the 
pupils should not know why and how a man succeeds with his orchard or dairy or 
factory, as well as to have the cyclopedia information about the names of capes and 
mountains, dates, and the like; and why should not every good farmer explain his 
operations to the pupils? Such work, if well done, would vitalize the school and 
lift it clean out of the ruts of tradition and custom. It would make a wholly new 
enterprise of the school, rendering it as broad and significant and native as the com- 
munity itself, not a puny exotic effort for some reason dropped down in the neigh- 
borhood. When the public schools begin to touch experience and pursuits in a 
perfectly frank and natural way, we hope that persons who have money to give for 
education will bestow some of it on elementary and country schools, where it will 
reach the very springs of life. 

There is no good reason why the teacher should not draw upon "all 
the farms of the neighborhood," all the highways, all the buildings, and 
many of the markets and business houses of the near-by towns for illus- 
trative material to aid in teaching agriculture in the public school. The 
intrinsic value of this material is so great that few colleges would be 
able to purchase it, and yet it is available for the free use of the pub- 
lic schools. It is for the purpose of suggesting the nature of this 
material and how it may be used that this article is prepared. As a 
basis for further suggestions let us first see what use some schools are 
now making of relatively inexpensive illustrative materials in teaching 
agriculture, and how this teaching is made useful to the whole 
community. 

AGRICULTURE AS TAUGHT IN SOME PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

A CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 

In east Tennessee, near Concord, is a school which was organized 
by the consolidation of three school districts, and named the Farragut 
School in honor of the great naval hero, whose supposed birthplace is 
about half a mile away. One of the old schoolhouses was abandoned, 
one was moved to the site of the new school and remodeled for labora- 
tory work in domestic science and manual training, and the other is 
still used for school purposes by the children of the primary grades in 
the village of Concord. The new school was opened in September, 
1904, and is supported jointly by the Southern Education Board, which 
had contributed up to July 1, 1905, about $3,500; the State tax levy 
for the salaries of teachers, and local funds raised by means of sub- 
scriptions and entertainments. The funds thus raised, exclusive of 
teachers' wages, amounted, July 1, 1905, to about $8,000, of which 
$6,000 was expended for a seven-room school building and equipment, 
and $620 for 12£ acres of land. A small poultry house, with incuba- 

«The Outlook to Nature. The Macmillan Company. 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 



259 



tor and brooder, a two-frame hotbed, and a shed for horses comprise 
the major portion of the farm equipment. Two other buildings are 
planned, a small barn and a dwelling house, which will enable the 
teacher of agriculture to live at the school. There are at present five 
teachers, including the superintendent and the teacher of agriculture, 
the latter an agricultural college graduate. 

It is the plan to make this a model rural school in which agricul- 
ture, domestic science, and manual training shall be leading features, 
and in the single year of its operation much progress in this direction 
has been made, especiall} 7 in the agricultural work. In the first place, 
a very creditable start has been made in assembling an agricultural 




Fig. 70. — A frame for homemade manila charts used at the Farragut School, Concord, Term. 

library. This consists of a number of elementary text-books of agri- 
culture, which are used as reference works in connection with the 
regular text-book; a collection of bulletins from this Department and 
from State experiment stations; Yearbooks of this Department, and 
a large number of agricultural papers, about 40 of which are received 
regularly through the courtesy of the publishers. These books and 
other publications are kept in the agricultural class room, which also 
serves as a reading room and agricultural laboratory. Numerous 
homemade manila paper charts tacked to a rough frame, about 12 feet 
long and 5 feet high (fig. 70), are used in illustrating lectures on any 



260 YEARBOOK OP THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

subject which can not be illustrated better in .some other way. A 
large number of charts can be fastened to one frame, and those which 
are in front of the chart to be used can be turned over back. 

Instruction in agriculture is given by means of text-books, lectures, 
a limited amount of laboratory work, and outdoor work. The last 
named is of most interest in this connection. 

Of the land belonging to the Farragut School 6 acres is devoted to 
field crops, 3 acres to horticulture, and 3| acres to campus and farm- 
yard. The field- crop work has consisted largely of variety tests and 
demonstration work, and has been nearly self-sustaining. The teacher 
of agriculture writes that in a wheat experiment with three plats of 
about 1 acre each they succeeded in demonstrating the "value of 
seed selection, treatment for smut, balanced fertilization, and variety, " 
besides learning something concerning the diseases and enemies of 
wheat, "and the yield paid for it all." Potatoes, onions, corn, and 
tomatoes were handled in the same way and quite as successfully. 
This work was of value not only to the pupils in the school, but also to 
the farmers of the whole community, who watched the experiments 
with a great deal of interest. 

In connection with the field work the class in agriculture has recently 
taken up the study of farm drainage, hillside ditching, and contour 
work, and has taken sufficient interest in this work to raise the neces- 
sary funds for the purchase of a farm level (exercise 1). A milk 
tester has also been purchased and the pupils are testing milk from 
cows in different dairy herds, which are numerous in this beautiful 
east Tennessee valley. 

A small plat of alfalfa grown on the school farm has aroused con- 
siderable interest among the farmers and led to the sowing of alfalfa 
in the neighborhood. 

The hotbed furnishes material for instruction, is a source of income 
to the school, and a convenience to the farmers of the district. The 
students are taught how to make and manage hotbeds. All the early 
garden plants and flowers needed for transplanting last spring were 
raised in this one small hotbed, and $10 worth of tomato plants were 
sold to farmers who preferred paying a small price for such plants 
to undertaking the propagation of them in pans or boxes in the 
house. 

The poultry work is also attracting attention. The poultry con- 
sists of two small flocks of pure-bred Brown Leghorns and Barred 
Plymouth Rocks, of which careful records as to feed, la} T ing quali- 
ties, etc., are kept. Forty-five incubator chicks were sold as broilers, 
but all the choicer birds are disposed of for breeding purposes at $1 
each, which the teacher of agriculture speaks of as "an unheard-of 
price heretofore." 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 



261 



Exercise 1. — To make a farm-level. 

A cheap but serviceable farm-level can be made as shown in figure 71. It should 
be 4 or 5 feet high, with a crossbar about 3 feet long. Small glass tubes are tied to 
the ends of the crossbar and connected by a piece of rubber tubing 4 or 5 feet long. 
The tubing is filled with water (colored water is better) up to the line A B. When 
the instrument is set so that the line A B exactly corresponds with the upper edge of 



^mm — ; 





Fig. 71.— A homemade farm-level. 



Fig. 72.- 



-A farm-level made with tripod and 
carpenter's level. 



the crossbar, the latter will be level. Such an instrument will cost not over 50 cents, 
and will be as accurate and nearly as convenient as a farm-level costing $15 to $25. 

A more convenient farm-level can be made by fastening a 30-inch carpenter's level, 
costing about $1.25, to the head of an ordinary camera tripod. Make the fastening 
by means of two right-angled screw hooks, as shown at a in figure 72. 

Here, then, is a rural school started as an experiment in adapting 
school work to country-life conditions. It has good equipment in 
buildings and land, rather expensive as county schools go, but not 
beyond the means of any consolidated district embracing within its 
territory from 20 to 30 square miles of well-improved farm land. It 
has had financial assistance from outside, but even that would have 
been unnecessary if the people of the three original school districts 
could have foreseen the possible advantages of a consolidated agricul- 
tural school in better courses of study, more efficient instruction, 
longer school year, and increased valuation of farm property. During 
the first year the attendance was considerably greater than the previ- 
ous combined attendance in the three small schools. This is accounted 



262 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

for by the fact that many boys attended the consolidated school who 
had outgrown the district school and gone to work and who either 
could not go to village or city high schools or were sensitive about 
going into classes with pupils much younger than themselves. These 
boys have given emphatic indorsement to the new order of things. 

A VILLAGE HIGH SCHOOL. 

In Erie County, Pa., surrounded by a good general farming and 
daily country, is the village of Waterford, on the outskirts of which 
is the site of Fort Le Boeuf, of French and Indian war fame. At 
Waterford the first school in Erie County was established in 1800, and 
here in 1822 was erected a stone academy building, which is used to-day 
as the main part of the high-school building. The township of Water- 
ford has a population of 1,460, and about half of these (770) reside 
in the borough of Waterford. The borough has its own elementary 
school, but the high school is supported and controlled jointly by the 
borough and township. 

This high school, with its three teachers and three courses of stud)^ 
(language, scientific, and agricultural), has an enrollment of 80 pupils, 
and 35 of these are in the agricultural course. This course includes 
agriculture, five hours a week for four years. The work of the first 
year is devoted to a study of plant life — germination, plant growth, 
plant food, reproduction, propagation, transplanting, pruning, and 
uses of plants; the second year to a study of field, orchard, and garden 
crops; the third year to domestic animals, dairying, and soil physics, 
and the fourth } r ear to the chemistry of soils and of plant and animal 
life. Text-books are used in the class room; a small library of agri- 
cultural reference books, reports and bulletins of this Department and 
experiment stations, and agricultural papers contributed by the pub- 
lishers is in almost constant use, and lectures on agricultural subjects 
are given before the class and before the whole school by the instructor 
in agriculture, who is an agricultural college graduate. But the fea- 
ture of instruction which chiefly distinguishes this agricultural course 
from the ordinary high-school course is the prominence given to the 
laboratory work and the outdoor practicum. For the laboratory work 
there is no elaborate apparatus. The pupils make much of their own 
apparatus, furnish their own reagent bottles, and, moreover, use them. 
In the plant-life course the pupils study not elaborate and carefully 
prepared drawings, but the plants themselves with reference to their 
life history and economic uses (PI. XIV, fig. 1). 

For the outdoor practicum the school is unfortunate in having 
neither land nor domestic animals or fowls, and yet it has a wealth of 
illustrative material all around it. Eveiy good farm within a radius 
of 3 or 4 miles, nearly every barn and poultry yard in the village, 
the butcher shops, and the farm implement stores furnish costly 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 2G3 

illustrative material and extend vastly the teaching force of the high 
school. The farmers and other owners of good live stock either bring 
their animals to the door of the school house to be studied by the class 
in agriculture (PL XIV, tig. 2), or allow the class to go to their barns 
and fields for this purpose (PI. XV, fig. 1). It is said to be a rare 
thing for a good horse to come to the village and get away without 
being examined by the high-school class in animal husbandry. 

The writer was fortunate in being the guest of the school one day 
last October and in having an opportunity to listen to some of the 
recitations in agriculture. A class of 14 toys and 6 girls was study- 
ing animal husbandry. It had been organized only three or four 
weeks, and yet the interest manifested and the readiness with which 
the boys and girls described the beef type, the dairy type, and various 
breeds of cattle, the mutton and wool types of sheep, the principal 
breeds of draft horses, and some of the standard-bred roadsters and 
trotters, were indeed surprising. At the close of the recitation the 
class was taken to a barn in the village, where several fine roadsters 
were owned. The owner was not at home, but the teacher had stand- 
ing permission to take the horses from the barn in order that the class 
might examine them. A fine Hambletonian mare (PI. XV, tig. 2) was 
led into the } 7 ard and examined critically by the pupils and criticised 
Iry them, the different points being brought out by skillful questioning 
on the part of the teacher. 

From this place the class went to a livery barn where a splendid 
black Percheron stallion was stabled for the day. A member of the 
class had discovered the horse as he was being driven in from another 
town 14 miles away, and following the driver to the barn had got per- 
mission for the class to examine him. When the livery barn was reached 
the driver brought his stallion out into the street, put him through 
his paces, helped the teacher in calling attention to his good points 
and the contrasts between the draft type and the roadster type of 
horses, and allowed us to take several photographs. It was an instruc- 
tive lesson not only for the members of the agricultural class, but 
for the score or more of farmers and townsmen who collected around 
the livery stable. In much the same way the local butcher is an 
instructor in the high school. The class studying the beef type of 
cattle, or the mutton sheep, or the different classes of swine is taken 
to the butcher shop and given a demonstration lesson on cuts and their 
relative values, which of the breeds are apt to produce the better cuts, 
which the better quality, and so on. 

Thus this little village high school, though it pays only $2,230 a 
year in salaries and only $370 for other expenses, has a faculty made 
up of numerous specialists and an equipment in illustrative material 
such as few technical high schools could afford. And the pupils are 
being trained in the "elements of failure and success," not only on 
32572—06 2 



264 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

"all the farms of the neighborhood," but in the village shops and 
markets. This is training- for efficiency. It is training for culture, 
for breadth of view, and for sympathy with all that goes to make up 
the life of the community. 

A COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL. 

Kansas has local option in the establishment of county high schools. 
As a result several sparsely settled counties or counties in which there 
are few large towns are supporting such schools. Norton County, 
which a few years ago was dotted with sod school houses (PI. XVI, 
fig. 1), and which still has many sod dwelling houses, now supports a 
good county high school in the village of Norton, a town of about 
1,500 inhabitants, located near the geographical center of the count}'. 
The high-school building (PL XVI, tig. 2) is of brick, 2 stories high, 
over a well-lighted basement, and is located on the outskirts of the 
village, where land can be easily secured. The basement contains 
furnace and fuel rooms, lavatories, and a gymnasium. On the tirst 
floor is a plrysics and chemistry room, a natural history room, a music 
and art room, and the rooms of the business department. The second 
floor contains an assembly and study room and two recitation rooms. 
The apparatus and other equipment for the work in physics, chemistry, 
and natural history are exceptionally good for a small high school. 
There is also a good library and a reading room with current news- 
papers and magazines. 

The expense of running the school in 1903-4 was $9,588, including 
$4,430 for teachers' salaries and $5,158 for buildings, grounds, and 
incidentals. This was a year when considerable sums were spent for 
furniture, apparatus, supplies, and additional land. The running 
expenses for the first six months in 1905 were $3,775. Heretofore 
five teachers have been employed, but this year there are six. 

Previous to this year the Norton County High School has offered 
college preparatory, normal, business, and general science courses, 
but no courses related in any direct way to the leading industry of 
the count} T — farming. The county superintendent of schools said that 
his attention had been forcibly directed to this lack in the curriculum 
of the high school by the experience of a young man who came to the 
school from one of the many large farms in the vicinity, took the four- 
year business course, spent one year in a local bank at $30 a month, and 
then concluded that he would gain in both purse and pleasure by going 
back to the farm. Such a young man, and there are many like him in 
the Norton County High School, would have welcomed an agricultural 
course, and would have gone back to the farm much better prepared 
for the duties of life than he was with a business training. So the 
county superintendent of schools and the other members of the board 
of trustees decided that an agricultural course should take the place 



Yearbook U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1905. 



Plate XIV. 




Fig. 1.— Plant-life Class at the Waterford, Pa., High School. 




Fig. 2.— Class in Live Stock Judging Dairy Cows at the Waterford, Pa., High 

School. 



Yearbook U. S. Dept of Agriculture, 1905. 



Plate XV. 




Fig. 1.— Class in Live Stock Studying Sheep on a Farm Near Waterford, Pa. 




Fig. 2— Waterford High School Class in Live Stock Examining a Hambletonian 

Mare. 



Yearbook U. S. Dppt. of Agriculture, 1905. 



Plate XVI. 




Fig. 1.— The Last Sod School House in Norton County, Kans. 




.\*V .. -■ l .\, ... 



Fig. 2.— County High School Building, Norton, Kans. 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN" RURAL SCHOOLS. 265 

of the general science course, and hired a graduate of the Kansas State 
Agricultural College to teach agriculture and other sciences in the 
high school. The Secretary of Agriculture, while making a trip 
through the "short-grass country," learned of the enterprise, became 
much interested in it, and in response to an appeal for aid sent a repre- 
sentative of the Office of Experiment Stations to Norton to help start 
it. The president of the Kansas State Agricultural College also 
responded to a call for assistance and made one of a party of four that, 
toured the county for eight days in the interests of the new course of 
study. As a result, considerable interest was aroused in the proposed 
new work, a tentative agricultural course was outlined, and arrange- 
ments were made with the three farm implement dealers of the town 
to open their warehouses to the classes in agriculture and furnish 
experts to give instruction on the mechanics, care, and use of farm 
machinery. 

The agricultural work of the course will include botan} 7 , with special 
reference to variation, development of species, hybridization, and the 
influence of light, heat, moisture, etc., on the plant; soils and tillage; 
plant physiology, farm crops, grain judging, and horticulture; farm 
accounts; farm management, including farm plans, methods of crop- 
ping, farm machinery and its care, and rural economics with special 
reference to the problems of a business nature that will be met on the 
farm; animal production and stock judging, and dairying. The 
teacher of agriculture reports that the implement dealers have given 
further evidence of their interest in the agricultural course Irf offer- 
ing prizes aggregating $112 in value for a grain- judging contest, 
open to all young men in the count} 7 , and that these prizes have been 
supplemented by a $15 suit of clothes from a clothing dealer. Con- 
tinuing, he says: "I am well pleased with the way the boys take hold 
of the work. Out of 70 boys we have 9 enrolled in the agricultural 
course, and 1 think most of the first-year bo}^s will take it up when 
they get to it in the course. It is proving popular in the school and 
entirely free from the prejudice 1 had anticipated at the outset." 

This is the nucleus of an important experiment in education. Nor- 
ton is just in the edge of the great semiarid region of the Middle 
West. Agricultural practice in that region differs materially from that 
of the more humid regions on the one hand and from that of the irri- 
gated districts on the other. The teacher of "agriculture is thoroughly 
familiar with the agriculture of the region, and has but recently 
graduated from an agricultural college which is devoting much study 
to the problems of the hundredth meridian belt. The agriculture 
of this belt is extensive. Here one man works as much land as four 
or five men in the East; he cultivates three rows of corn at one cross- 
ing of the field, and does other things on an equalby extensive scale. 
Improved farm machinery makes this method of farming possible. It 



266 



YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



is therefore of the greatest importance that much attention to farm 
machinery be given in the agricultural course at the Norton County 
High School. The cereals (corn and wheat) are the leading field crops, 
hence the importance of grain-judging contests and other school work 
relating to these great staples. 

The county superintendent of schools has expressed the hope that 
the school may also do much work that will be of immediate practical 
benefit to the agriculture of the county, such as testing seeds for 
viability, or germinating power (exercise 2), and milk and cream for 
butter fat; treating oats and wheat for smut and potatoes for scab; 
spraying trees and garden crops for insect pests and diseases, and 
making plans for farm buildings, roads, water systems, etc. Such 
work could be done largely by the pupils at school or on the different 
farms on Saturdays. It would be educational and at the same time 
would make the farmers feel that they were getting some immediate 
tangible return for the taxes paid in support of the school. 

Exercise 2. — Germination test of seeds. 

Count out 50 or 100 seeds of the kind to be tested a and place them in a plate 
between two folds of moistened canton flannel or thin blotting paper (fig. 73). On 
a slip of white paper record the variety, number of seeds, and the date, then place 

it on the edge of the 
plate. Cover the whole 
with another plate or 
a pane of glass to pre- 
vent too rapid evapo- 
ration of moisture. Set 
the plate in a warm 
room (68° to 86° F.) 
and examine the seeds every twenty-four hours for six or eight days. b If they get 
too dry add enough water to moisten, not saturate, the cloth or blotting paper. At 
the end of the test count the sprouted seeds and from them determine what per- 




Fig. 73.— Seed-testing device. 



centageof the whole number of seeds are good 
be experienced in using the folds of can- 
ton flannel, but with small seeds the blot- 
ting paper is better. 

Another seed tester (fig. 74) is made by 
inverting a small tin basin (b) in a larger 
basin (a) and covering the small basin 



With large seeds no difficulty will 




Fig. 74.— Another seed-testing device. 



with a piece of clean cloth large enough to dip into the water (c) at each end. Place 
seeds on the cloth and cover with another cloth as shown at d, e. How does moisture 
get to the seeds? 

« In official germination tests 100 seeds are used of peas, beans, corn, and other 
seeds of similar size, and 200 seeds of clover, timothy, cabbage, wheat, and other 
small seeds. 

''For most seeds six days are enough for the test, but beets, buckwheat, cotton, 
cowpeas, onions, redtop, tomatoes, and watermelons should be allowed to remain 
eight days; salsify and spinach ten days; carrots, celery, parsnips, and tobacco four- 
teen days, and bluegrass and parsley twenty-eight days. 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 267 

LABORATORY EXERCISES. 

The schools just described are utilizing- illustrative material in the 
best possible way. The} T are making use of the actual experiences and 
business of the communities. There is no make-believe about it. 
Some of the principles of agriculture, however, do not lend themselves 
so readily to illustration in this manner. There is need of some labo- 
ratory work which can best be performed indoors with specially pre- 
pared apparatus. But much of the material for this apparatus is so 
inexpensive and many of the exercises are so simple that even the 
untrained teacher in the one-room rural school need have no hesitation 
in undertaking such work. 

MATERIALS NEEDED. 

Two dozen empty tomato cans, three or four lard pails, a few bak- 
ing-powder cans and covers, a lot of empty bottles, a few small wooden 
boxes, a collection of typical soils (clay, sand, loam, and muck or peat), 
and a few seeds of garden and farm crops will enable the teacher and 
pupils to perform a variety of experiments illustrating important 
principles upon which the science and practice of agriculture are based, 
and will not cost a cent. If to this material the school board or the 
pupils will add by purchase an 8-ounce glass graduate (10 cents), 4 
dairy thermometers (60 cents), 6 student-lamp chimneys (30 cents), 100 
5-inch filter papers (15 cents), a pint glass funnel (10 cents), a 4-bottle 
Babcock milk tester with test bottles, pipette acid measure and acid 
($5), an alcohol lamp (25 cents), a kitchen scale with dial which will 
weigh from 1 ounce to 24 pounds (90 cents), 12 ordinary glass tum- 
blers (30 to 50 cents), a small quantity of litmus paper, and a few ordi- 
nary plates, pie tins, etc. , the school will be provided with an excellent 
equipment for laboratory exercises, and all at a cost of less than $10. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OP SOILS. 

With this material in the hands of the pupils and a teacher willing 
to experiment and learn with the pupils the ordinary rural schoolroom 
becomes a laboratory in which it is possible to determine the compara- 
tive temperature, weight, acidity, porosity (exercise 3), capillarity 
(exercise 4), and fertility of different soils; to test their water-holding 
capacity and the readiness with which tfiey may be drained, and to 
show the effects of cultivation, mulching, and puddling on the moisture 
content and physical condition of different soils. As far as the train- 
ing of the pupils in mathematics will permit, the results obtained in 
the laboratory exercises should be translated to field conditions, and 
the importance of the principles involved should be brought out by 
questions concerning their application to the practical operations of 
farming. 



268 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

Exercise3. — Porosity— the capacity of soils to take in rainfall. 

Break the bottoms off 5 long-necked bottles, « tie a small piece of cheese cloth or 
thin muslin over the mouth of each and arrange them in a rack with a glass tumbler 
under each, as shown in figure 75. Fill the bottles to about the same height with 
different kinds of soil — gravel in one, sand in another, etc., and firm the soils by- 
lifting the rack and jarring it down moderately three or four times. Now, with watch 
or clock at hand, and with a glass of water held as near as possible to the soil, pour 
water into one of the bottles just rapidly enough to keep the surface of the soil 
covered and note how long before it begins dropping into the tumbler below. 
Make a record of the time. Do likewise with each of the other bottles and compare 
results. Which soil takes in water most rapidly? Which is the most porous? 
What happens to the less porous soils when a heavy shower of rain comes? How 
can a soil be made more porous? Repeat the experiment with one of the soils, 
packing the soil tightly in one bottle and leaving it loose in the other. What is the 
effect of packing? Does this have any bearing on farm practice? 




Fig. 75— Apparatus to test the capacity of soils to take in rainfall. 

Which soil has the greatest capacity for water — that is, which could take in the 
heaviest shower? This can be determined from the above experiment by emptying 
and replacing each tumbler as soon as all free water has disappeared from the upper 
surface of the soil above it. After water has ceased dripping from all the bottles 
measure and compare the water in the different tumblers. Which soil continued 
dripping longest? Which would drain most readily? 

Which soil would store up the greatest amount of moisture for the use of plants? 
This can be determined from the» same experiment by weighing each bottle before 
and after filling it with dry soil, and again after water has entirely ceased dripping 
from it. The difference between the weight of the dry soil and that of the wet 
soil is the weight of water stored. During the time that the bottles are dripping, 
which may take several days, they should be covered to prevent evaporation of 
water from the surface of the soils. 

Make other practical applications of the principles brought out in this exercise. 

«To break the, bottom off a bottle file a groove in the bottle parallel with the 
bottom. Heat a poker red hot and lay it in the groove. As soon as a small crack 
starts from the groove draw the poker around the bottle and the crack will follow. 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 



269 




-Apparatus to test the power of soils to take up 
moisture from below. 



Exercise 4. — Capillarity — the power of soils to take up moisture from below. 

Arrange 4 or 5 student-lamp chimneys, as shown in figure 76, and tie cheese cloth 
or thin muslin over their lower ends. Fill each with a different kind of dry soil, 
as in exercise 3. Pour water into the pan beneath until it stands about half an 
inch above the lower end of the 
chimneys, then observe the rise of 
water in the different soils. Make 
notes on the height to which the 
water rises, and on the time it takes. 
In which soil does the water rise 
most rapidly; in which to the great- 
est height? Which soil drawn up 
the greatest amount of water? How 
can this be determined? This power 
of soils to raise water from below is 
called capillarity. It is an impor- 
tant function, for by it plants are 
able to get moisture and plant food 
from the subsoil in times of drought. 

If chimneys are not to be had, 
this experiment can be performed with the apparatus shown in figure 75 by substitut- 
ing the pan for the tumblers; or the experiments performed with the bottles can be 
performed with the chimneys and tumblers. 

If more accurate tests of capillarity are desired it will be necessary to procure a 
series of glass tubes at least 3 feet high, for in some soils water will rise to that 
height, or even higher. 

RELATION OF SOILS TO PLANTS. 

It will be perfectly feasible also to arrange exercises showing- the 
relation of the physical characteristics of soils to plant growth— that 
plants need moisture in the soil; that they take up this moisture 
(exercise 5) and give off a part of it through their leaves (exercise 6); 
how much moisture is taken from the soil by a given plant; that too 
much moisture is injurious to plants; how the root hairs of plants 
absorb moisture; the best depth at which to plant different seeds in 
different soils (exercise 7); the effect of cultivation > on plant growth, 
and a dozen other things important for the farmer to know and inter- 
esting as experiments for school children. 

Seed testing has already been referred to. It is highly important 
that farmers should know that they plant good seed in order that all 
of the land they plow, plant, and cultivate may at least have a chance 
to make some return for the labor bestowed upon it. It is estimated 
that in the summer of 1905 the farmers of Iowa increased their corn 
crop several million bushels merely by giving better attention to the 
quality of seed planted. It would not be a difficult matter to teach 
every boy in school the process of testing seed, nor to impress upon 
him the practical importance of this work. Testing the viability of 
seeds would lead naturally to other studies in propagation, such as 



270 



YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 




Fig. 77. — To show that plants absorb moisture from the soil. 



making hard and soft cuttings, layering, grafting, and budding, all of 
which are clearly described in bulletins of this Department and in 
other publications which teachers can procure without cost. 

Exercise 5. — To show that plants absorb moisture from the soil. 

Thoroughly pulverize and sift enough good garden soil to fill two flower pots of 

the same size. To get the same amount of soil into each pot it should previously 

be weighed or carefully meas- 
ured. Plant several kernels of 
corn in one pot, water both, 
and set them aside for the 
corn to grow. Whenever wa- 
ter is applied to the pot con- 
taining the corn an equal amount 
should be applied to the other 
pot, in order that both soils may 
be packed alike. When the 
corn is 2 or 3 inches high get 
two lard pails just large enough 
to take in the pots to their 
rims, as shown in figure 77. 
Mark on the outside of the pails 
the depth to wdiich the pots will 
extend on the inside, and at a 

point 1 inch above each mark make a dent which can be distinctly seen on the 

inside of the pail. Now fill each pail with water up to the dent, water both pota 

thoroughly, and set them in the pails as shown 

in the figure. Set both pails and pots in a 

warm, light place so that the corn will continue 

to grow. The next day remove the pots, and 

you will probably find that the w T ater is not up 

to the dents. What has become of it? From 

a previous experiment you will probably con- 
clude that the soil has taken it up. From an 

S-ounce graduate pour into one pail just enough 

water to bring it up to the dent again. Make a 

record of the amount necessary to do this. Fill 

the graduate and bring the water in the other 

pail up to the dent. Again record the amount 

of water used. Repeat these operations daily 

for two or three weeks. Find the total 

amount of water added to each pail. You 

will probably find that the pot containing the 

corn has taken up considerably more water 

than the other pot. Why? Was there any 

place for the water to escape except through 

the soil and the corn? How much water did 

the corn use? What became of this water? 

became of a part of it. 




Fig. 78.— To show that plants give off a part 
of the moisture absorbed from the soil. 

The next exercise will show what 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 



271 



Exercise 6. — To show that plants give off moisture. 

Take a plant that is well started in a tomato can or flower pot, a piece of cardboard, 
and a glass tumbler or jar large enough to cover the plant. Cut a slit in the cardboard 
and draw it around the plant as shown in figure 78. Seal the slit with pitch, wax, 
or tallow so that no moisture can come up through it from below; cover the plant 
with the glass and set it in a warm, sunny place. Moisture will condense on the 
inner surface of the glass. Where does it come from? Is all the moisture absorbed 
by the roots given off in this way? How can you find out? Why do plants need 
water? 

Exercise 7. — Depth of planting. 

To determine the best depth at which to plant corn take an olive bottle about 8 
inches high, or other similar glass vessel. Fill it with garden soil to a height of 
5 or 6 inches from the top, put in a kernel of corn flat 
against the side of the bottle, put in another inch of soil, 
then another kernel of corn, and so on until the bottle is 
full, arranging the kernels spirally as shown in figure 79. 
Moisten the soil, wrap the bottle up to the neck in black 
paper or cloth, and set it in a warm place. Prepare other 
bottles in the same way, but plant in them beans, peas, 
and some small seeds, such as those of radishes, onions, 
and lettuce. By taking off the wrappings and looking at 
the seeds daily you can not only determine the best depth 
at which to plant different seeds, but make many interest- 
ing observations regarding the rate of germination, how the 
little plants push out of the ground, whether they take the 
seeds up with them or leave them behind, etc. Take care- 
ful notes and try to determine whether large or small seeds 
should be planted deeper, whether the roots or the little 
plants are formed first, whether the plants ever start down 
or the roots up. 

STUDIES OF MILK. 

The extent to which milk enters into the regu- 
lar diet of a large percentage of the inhabitants 
of both urban and rural communities renders it 
almost imperative that some instruction concern- 
ing the importance of sanitary methods of han- 
dling milk be given in the public schools. In 
rural districts a number of inexpensive and simple 
experiments could be arranged to show the effect 
of different methods of milking, cooling, aerating, bottling, shipping-, 
and other processes in the handling of milk- upon its purity, flavor, 
odor, and keeping qualities (exercise 8). If the school is provided 
with a Babcock milk tester, the pupils could determine the relative 
value of different cows for the production of cream and butter, also 
the relative efficiency of different methods of separating cream from 
the rest of the milk. 




Fig. 79.— To show the best 
depth at which to plant 
corn. 



272 YEARBOOK OP THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

Exercise 8. — To show the effect of cleanliness on the keeping quality of milk. 

Provide one of the boys with two pint bottles which have been cleaned thoroughly, 
scalded, ami plugged with clean cotton batting (absorbent cotton is better), and 
instruct him as follows: Take the bottles home and at milking time select a cow which 
has stood in the stable several hours and has not been cleaned. Milk a quart or two 
of milk into a pail in the usual way and set it aside. Then clean the sides and udder 
of the cow by first brushing and then wiping with a damp cloth. Wash the hands 
thoroughly, remove the cotton plug from one of the bottles, fill the bottle to the neck 
by milking directly into it, and immediately replace the cotton plug. Mark this 
bottle A. Now carry the milk in the pail to the milk room, strain it in the usual 
way, and from it fill the other bottle, removing and replacing the cotton plug as 
before. Mark this bottle B. Set both bottles over night in the room where the 
milk is usually kept, and the next morning bring them to school. Remove the plugs 
and note whether any bad odor has developed in either bottle. Pour a small 
quantity of milk out of each bottle and replace the plugs. Taste the samples. Is 
there any bad flavor? Test them with litmus paper to see if either is getting sour. 
Set the bottles in a moderately cool place, and examine them as above, morning and 
evening, for several days, making notes on any changes that take place in either. 
Does cleanliness have any effect on odor? On flavor? On acid formation? 

Repeat this experiment, cooiing bottle A immediately after filling and treating B 
as before. Does cooling affect the keeping quality of milk? 

By keeping accurate temperature records and careful notes on changes occurring 
under different conditions, the above exercise may be made to yield quite accurate 
data regarding the proper methods of handling milk. 

AGRICULTURE AN AID TO OTHER SCHOOL WORK. 

Agriculture taught in this way, that is, supplemented and illustrated 
by numerous outdoor observations and laboratory exercises, will prove 
not only an interesting and instructive study in itself, but also an aid 
in teaching other subjects. What more efficient method of enforcing 
and fixing in the minds of the pupils the fundamental operations in 
arithmetic than by the frequent use of these operations in solving 
problems in their everyday life and work? The tables of weights and 
measures will be in constant use and the principles of percentage and 
proportion will enter into the solution of nearly every problem in soils. 
Composition will lose some of its bad flavor, and spelling be no longer 
distasteful when applied to the description of experiments in which the 
pupils are interested. Manual training will find its place in the making 
of boxes, labels, farm-levels, and other appliances used in the experi- 
ments. Some of the principles of botany, physics, and chemistry will 
be learned and applied in the experiments with soils, plants, and milk. 
And all of the work will leave a more lasting impression because con- 
crete; more interesting because connected with the life and occupation 
of the pupils. 

An educator who has had nearly five years' experience teaching in 
ungraded rural schools relates that as he now looks back upon that 
experience the nearest approach to satisfaction that he can feel is in 



ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 273 

contemplation of a winter term's work in a country school having an 
enrollment of about 65 pupils, ranging- in age from 5 to 20 years. He 
conducted between 25 and 30 recitations a day, pla}*ed with the pupils 
during recess, drilled a company of boys in military tactics at noon, 
and yet found time nearly every daj r for a simple experiment or dem- 
onstration in physics or chemistry. Neither of these subjects was 
taught regularly in the school, but the exercises were introduced to 
illustrate the principles governing some of the common elements, such 
as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, in some 
of the combinations in which they are found in water, pure air and 
foul, plant and animal tissue, and other things affecting the everyday 
life and. experience of the pupils. Teacher and pupils extinguished 
lighted candles by pouring carbon dioxid over them, made hydrogen 
guns, burned picture wire in oxygen, and performed other experiments 
which not only were interesting enough to make the teacher forget 
his troubles and the pupils their mischief-making, but made lasting 
impressions concerning the principles illustrated. The teacher was 
recently told by two of his former pupils that the one feature of school 
work that winter which they recalled clearly was the "experiments." 

That was fourteen years ago, when educators in the North Central 
States were giving little heed to the needs of the rural schools. The 
teacher had spent two and a half } T ears in an agricultural college, but 
had never heard or dreamed of such a thing as teaching agriculture in 
country schools. There were no elementary text-books of agriculture, 
no bulletins containing laboratory exercises carefully prepared for 
the use of country teachers, no normal schools where teachers could 
be trained in country-life subjects, no encouraging words from school 
superintendents, teachers' journals, or even the agricultural press. 

Now a wonderful change has come over the aspect of country 
life and over the attitude of educators toward rural education. The 
State superintendents of schools consider it their highest duty to 
minister to the welfare and progress of the rural schools; State legis- 
latures are providing special normal schools for country teachers; the 
older normal schools are offering courses in country-life subjects; the 
State agricultural colleges are aiding the normal schools by giving 
short courses for teachers, and their experts are preparing text-books, 
bulletins, and other reading matter on nature study and agriculture for 
the rural schools; teachers' associations and farmers' organizations are 
giving much discussion to these matters, and the school journals and 
agricultural papers are almost unanimous in their support of the move- 
ment for better rural schools and more instruction related to the envi- 
ronment of the pupils in these schools. With such encouragement and 
such assistance no teacher imbued with the spirit of progress, who is 
willing to do a little more than the contract calls for, and who is brave 



274 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

enough to say to the pupils, "I don't know, but I'll work with you to 
find out," need have any hesitation about undertaking some features 
of the work alluded to in this article. Such teachers may feel assured 
that their efforts will not be passed over without recognition. There 
may be no immediate call to "come up higher," though intelligent and 
unselfish devotion to study is seldom without its pecuniary reward; 
but there will be a never-failing reward in feeling and knowing that 
better work has been done in preparing the children to meet the duties 
of life. 

O 



